Long Time Coming
by Silly Shepard
Summary: No longer dreaming, very real questions are asked and answered as the war ravaged pair seek to understand what they want so deeply. Continuation of Last Night's Dream. Earth/Sole Female Shepard x Garrodactyl.


**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Thanks for reading! or... intending to read! So, the reason why this is a continuation of Last Night's Dream, instead of a chapter, is because chapters feel like they happen one right after the other. And in Mass Effect games, usually you don't get to keep talking to people one conversation after another, you have to wait, do some missions, let stuff happen, etc. So yeah, thought that better suited the tempo for this story. Okay, i should stop blabbing now! Oh, and see! It's not bold for no reason! hooray!

* * *

Walking to the elevator always drew attention.

Of course, anytime he walked anywhere drew attention. Mess Hall, CIC, head, sleeping quarters, hell, even getting a drink was cause to stop and stare. Most stared at him like an exhibit, something you bring kids to see and say, "Look, Honey, that's a Turian. They're very scary and have big teeth so that's why we stay behind this fence so they can't get us!"

That didn't bother him as much though, it was the other stares. The ones that knew, or thought they knew, the ones that speculated, that was what made his teeth clench. It was the subject of their coffee breaks, the topic to be dissected while they pretended to work. Other ships he had served on at least had the decency to not stare and leave the gossip for the end of the shift.

But no, he can't let that get to him. They may not be professional, they may not know when to keep their damn mouths shut, but that didn't mean he had to be the same way. It's for their sake that he's here. It's not their asses he sticks his neck out for. It's not…

Light flashed, doors opened. A small sigh escaped him as he boarded the elevator. Right, he thought, there had to be someone in here already. To his right stood a male Cerberus crewmember, who was understandably taken aback when he noticed that he was no longer the only occupier. The unfortunate soul inched himself away from the looming alien, trying his best to hide the terror that filled him to the brim. For the next four seconds Garrus had to hear the poor sap fumble with himself to regain composure by messing with his data pad. It was pathetic really.

A short halt cued both riders to look at the doors as they began to slide open. They didn't slide fast enough apparently, since the unwitting crewmember had walked up to the door a moment too quick and was forced to spend that awkward second staring at a closed door. Garrus shook his head as his riding companion practically leaped through the widening gap.

It seemed that he gained some confidence once he stepped out, and he turned to perhaps say something courteous. But as soon as his mouth opened, Garrus leered and let out a low growl. A shriek followed the would be hero as he ran to his workstation. Weird looks and sounds of genuine concern wafted from the CIC into the elevator cabin, and as it closed, Kelly Chambers could have sworn she heard a laugh from inside it.

That was mean, he thought, but so worth it.

His thoughts lingered as another four seconds past.

When the doors finally opened, nerves began to race. It was a reaction common to this area, just inside of Shepard's cabin. This was her space, and it had an entirely different feeling than the rest of the ship. Just inside these walls was the only place where the two of them could have any peace. He stood there for a while, among the gray and the stirrings of the ship.

The space was always kept in proper order, as a former enlistee should keep it. However her subtle traces dotted the room. A corner of the sheet was always slightly coming off, one pillow was dented, while the other was straight, the models were clean, but one tilted. Detailed mission reports stored on an expensive Cerberus data pad had coffee stains ingrained in the recesses.

With a sigh of defeat he thought, How can she drink that black water?

"Garrus?"

Turning quickly, he found his comrade looking on him with curious tease. It took a moment for him to regain himself, words stumbled.

"Did you need something?"

He looked up and met her eyes by accident. All the thoughts and events of the day seemed to disappear in a blur, like they were being wiped away. She smiled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"You know, I actually forgot the reason I made up to come here."

Shepard laughed and shook her head, "You didn't have to come all the way up here, I was on my way down to see you. There are some things I needed you to look at."

"Commander, isn't that kind of behavior best kept in personal quarters?" Garrus asked with a sly.

"Not that, you big…" Shepard said, punched his arm. As he pretended to dodge, she slapped his chest, and he fell back in obvious pain. Their laughs were light and almost carefree.

It started to sound like she was saying something important, but he chose not to listen. Her lips would move and his eyes would wander. Garrus had begun to fall for her decidedly human form. Eyes sparkled, her waist very supportive, and her hair… was hair. But it was her curve, her softness, that riled his senses. Turians are made of lines. Sure, those lines would bend, turn, fade, and twist. Yet when his hand would float along her bare frame, feeling the tenderness that betrayed her determined exterior, the raise and fall of her figure - it was enough to drive him mad.

Even while encased in armor, he could still detect the shape that filled it. Her subtle sway as she walked became like a metronome and his heart was beginning to following its beat.

"Garrus- Garrus, are you listening to me?"

His head sprung up, she didn't look as happy now but her eyes still shined.

"Well, are you?"

"There's something different about you," he said, their last night together seemed to cause a change in her step, a brightness he thought would only last as long as the pillow talk.

"You're just trying to get out of a fight." She fussed.

"Yes… but I mean it." Shepard allowed his arms to slide around her waist. His scent filled her senses, like the smell of the bed when you plop down after a hard day. Muscles relaxed, and then she wasn't so upset anymore.

"I do." She sighed, "I do feel good. It's nice to finally be able to share a burden with someone."

Her voice drained into something other worldly. He could feel the seriousness in her, the loneliness too. To him, her brokenness was just as prevalent as her strength, and most likely the source of it as well. Soon she wrapping her arms around his neck and letting a bit of her weight shift on to him. Surprisingly heavy, he pulled her close to balance the change. There was no space between them now, in a room built by war.

"Was that the first time you…" Garrus asked, holding back the touch of jealousy and concern that fueled his question. With a smile, Shepard looked up.

"Are you asking if I told Kaiden?"

"Well, if you're going to put it bluntly, yes, I am asking if you told Kaiden."

"Garrus…" She could see that he wasn't angry, perhaps a bit uneasy. This was his first time ever mentioning or even eluding to previous partners, but for some reason this had stuck a chord. "No, I never told him."

His eyes searched hers for the truth. Satisfied, he exhaled.

"… Why not?"

There was no need to ask these questions, but he wanted to, almost had to. Up until now, everything he had known about her was a given, things you have to know when you're seeing someone. But these dreams she had, the things she'd seen in them, the secrets held deep in her heart, Garrus wanted these for himself. Anything that brought them closer together, anything that made their bond that much harder to break.

"He never asked, or more like he never knew to ask," Shepard recalled as she thought of a long gone flame, "Whenever I would wake up in cold sweat, he would just mumble something and roll over. There was even one time I woke up screaming, sat straight up, everything, looked to my side. And he's still sleeping, like… nothing happened."

"You mean, he would just sleep through it?"

"Well, to be honest, he usually wouldn't stick around long enough to notice. It was rare for him to stay longer than needed. Once he was done, that was it, and it was back to work. Kaiden, Kaiden is an Alliance man through and through. He liked me, I know that, but his duties came first. He said he loved me but… that was after I was long gone. And when I came back he, he didn't even give me the benefit of the doubt. You know, he flat out refused to hear me out. And that… that was the end of it for me. After everything we'd been through, none of it mattered. None of it mattered because I was no longer a part of the team. I was an outcast, a disgrace, and he wanted no part of it…"

Recollections swirled in her head, and when it became too much she hid herself in his chest as he rubbed her back in response. The beat of his heart provided more comfort than hours of talking with another, and the pain that came with the memories lost its sting. It was not enjoyable being this open, and this vulnerable, always feeling like she should shut herself back up.

Not this time, her emotions begged, please don't lock us up again…

"I-I didn't mean to, you know. I just-" His words stumbled as he tried to form his thoughts. "I'm sorry."

Those words were foreign to her, in meaning at least, so often she had been swept aside with those same few syllables. Her arms tighten around him, and Garrus had felt a slight crack in his armor. Shepard had finally gotten through.

"You can ask me anything," she said, with her determined spark, looking into his face, "For you, Garrus…"

Words ceased, she can't say it. No, not now, it's too soon. They had only just begun, only sharing fleeting moments stuffed between long suffering missions, personal vendettas, uneasy truces, and yet to be fulfilled promises. There was still so much more to be said and done before. Before.

Holding his breath, he could read all the thoughts that flashed through her mind. No, don't say it. Then I'll have to say it too. Then what will happen? We cannot abandon everything we have worked so hard to accomplish. Don't, please don't. It's hard enough to put up the barriers after being with you for just a few short hours. If you say it, I'm done. I can no longer convince myself that I will do anything to accomplish the mission. Not if it risks…

A kiss gently touched his lips.

It halted every thought. He had never been kissed before, naturally, since lips were required. However, her light peck, her simple gesture, was like a wave of warm water. Shepard could feel his shock, not the bad kind of shock, but shock nonetheless. Senses glazed over, and even though the subtleties were lost, her message was loud and clear.

"Why me?" Garrus whispered, as consciousness began to drift back into his mind. "This whole time I have been wondering, thinking. Why did you offer to test my-"

"Reach?" Shepard said with a soft, happy expression. She was more interested in kissing but this seemed important.

"Yeah… I mean, to be completely honest, Shepard, you literally have a whole ship of men in line to sleep with you. Probably a few girls even. You could have your pick of the lot. I'm sure Thane could have coughed his way through it if you had just asked."

They giggled for just a moment. Bad joke, bad joke.

"No, no but seriously, Shepard… Why did you pick the hardest one to be with?"

Forlornness plagued his mind as she looked at him dreamily. Relationships were fine until this point, for him at least. The few who got this far usually brushed him off, claiming that he was a nice guy, not a drunk, had a job, a list of appropriateness that contained no emotion or connection. Until now, most his questions were about her, for her, meant to understand, and perhaps tease. This one though, why she wanted to be with him, this one is for him.

"You understand me." Her hands left his body as she spoke, pulling away from his grasp.

"What?" Slightly taken aback by the short response and that she was no longer in his arms.

"Garrus, I can come to you broken and defeated. And you don't turn me away, you don't shy away. Anyone else, I have to be the rock, I have to carry the load, I have to fix the mess they got themselves into. But you… you're the only one who has ever offered to help, you're the only one who takes responsibility for what you've done, even, even when it's not your fault. Garrus, all I have ever wanted was a partner, someone one to fight with, someone to depend on, and… and you're all that and so much more."

In front of him was a determined soul, one that was scarred and dirty and bruised, but she was whole. And she had picked him, just for being him and doing what he does. Elation, the only word that can describe it.

"Can I ask you the same question?" Shepard was slipping back into his arms now, he could feel himself smiling.

"Why did I pick you?" The question sounding much softer once spoken.

"Yeah… You've been the one asking all the questions. Now it's my turn. Why did you pick me, was it my butt? I've been informed on several occasions that it is ranges from pretty good to fair."

Shepard laughed at her own comment, the respondent too lost in thought to react.

He remembered the first moments of their first meeting, how skeptical he was, how different she was from anything he had ever known. Then times when she would visit him on the ship, just to see how he was doing, no commander does that. And on the battlefield, her focus was on the team, on the innocents, not just the target. Memories flooded past him, thinking of when he first heard of her death. It saddened him, of course, but there was something deeper in that sorrow. When he was on Omega, how many times did he think, What would Shepard do in a situation like this? How many times did he wonder about her after a long day? And when he was beaten down, at his lowest, ready to take everything down with him… Who came back from the dead in the nick of time to save his sorry ass? It was her, always her. She had stolen his heart with good timing and simple conversation.

"You always… you were always," his words stumbled as his hands gently held her face. Pulling her close, he pressed mouth against hers. Their eyes closed, Shepard lost in emotion and Garrus lost in procedure.

"You are always there," he spoke as they parted, "always there to help out, always there to see what's going on, always there to see how I'm doing. Shepard, you are one of the few constants in my life. When others compromise, when other shrink back, you stand your ground even more. Even if it means backlash, even if it costs you everything. You have strength and you use it to improve what's around you, instead of using it for personal gain. You are everything I've ever fought for."

A small blush rushed across her face. This was unknown territory, they were both hardened soldiers galvanized with hardship and betrayal and death. Soft words, tender caresses, and open hearts was something they both stayed away from. Blurring the line between on and off duty was a bad idea that got worse the moment it was acted on. Yet here they were, in a ship built with stolen plans, integrated with an illegal AI, stocked with wanted criminals and mass murders, on a mission that may very well result in a long, painful death… holding each other like teenagers on a second date. But they had put logic out of their minds for a moment, if only to taste what small joy a life like theirs could bring.

For just a moment…

"Shepard, you are needed in the Briefing Room." A blue hologram came, spoke, and left in a second.

Walls went up again, doors were closed, emotions were put on lock down. It was as if they woke up from a sweet dream, once again aware of the black vacuum that surrounded them. He was once again a Turian, she was once again a Human. There was work to do, weapons to maintain, missions to complete, orders to fulfill. Arms lingered and fingers were still laced until they gradually separated from one another.

"Probably a new lead on…"

"The calibrations still need…"

Heavy hearts kept them from speaking anymore, so Garrus stepped towards the elevator door. But before he could reach it, he received a peck on the cheek, or what was left of it.

They smiled, holding hands just one more time while they walked toward to looming elevator doors. A few more steps and it's back work, a few more steps until this feels like an illusion again.

"What did you want to show me, by the way?" he asked, about to board. Shepard's memory sparked, and she went to grab the coffee lined data pad.

"Are these the upgrades you requested?" Such a boring question, but it needed to be confirmed. His finger breezed through stats and numbers and things with long names, shuffling through multiple records. A short nod and the tablet was back in her hands.

"How were you going to show me this if it was up here?"

"Oh, well to be honest I thought it would lead to something fun… but, but this was nice too."

"Wow, and here I thought you were above that kind of thinking."

"I'll put you above me if you're not careful." Shepard said with a wink.

Heh, good one, he thought. "We're still on for tonight?"

"Yeah, don't be late this time. I know you're just flirting with all the females while I'm up here waiting for you."

"You know me too well." Garrus admitted as he backed further into the cabin. He pressed for his floor and looked forward, his partner waving as the doors…

Shut.

Alone again, in this room where all her fears were realized and dispersed at the same time. The silence was suffocating and the loneliness a stranglehold. What was the point of all this, she wondered to herself, if who I really want to fight for can just walk out the door. She hung her head, and with blurred vision read the data pad she held. Surprise filled her eyes as the words slowly came together. It didn't show the requests that he green lighted. It was something else entirely.

It was a play list. A simple collection of music. And just above the list it said, "Sorry I was late, was trying to put this together for you. Hope you like it. Garrus."

And the first song's title… _Last Night's Dream._


End file.
